Quito (finally) bows out

[my miss storm cat]

Racing post.....



Grand servant Quito retired - but stud chances look 'slim'

by Tom O'Ryan

QUITO, whose rags-to-riches career has been the stuff of fairytales, has run his last race – but, despite being a rig, he is set to undergo a fertility test in the “slim” hope that he may have a future as a stallion.

The remarkable ten-year-old returned home sore after finishing unplaced in last month's Darley July Cup at Newmarket and has been retired by trainer David Chapman.

Chapman had bought him for 3,500gns and has placed him to win no fewer than 18 races and more than £460,000 in prize-money, including the Ayr Gold Cup and seven Listed contests for owner Michael Hill.

“He's always had trouble with his joints and has had surgery on them in each of the last two winters,” said Chapman. “He was very sore when he came back from Newmarket, so we've decided to call it a day with him.”

The veteran North Yorkshire trainer added: “Although he did tremendously well for us, I have always maintained that, because of his dodgy joints, he never really fulfilled his true potential.”

Bred by Sheikh Mohammed, for whose son Rashid whom he won two minor races in Dubai, Quito was snapped up by Chapman at Newmarket's July Sales in 2002 when he was looking to buy “a present for myself” on his birthday.

Three months later, Quito won a handicap at Wolverhampton off a mark of 59, a measly figure considering that Quito rose to a peak of 115 as his career went from strength to strength.

Winner of the 2003 Ayr Gold Cup – “A big day,” recalls Chapman – Quito underlined his versatility the following year when finishing second, beaten only three-quarters of a length by Babodana, in the Lincoln Handicap over a mile.

“He won at Wolverhampton before going to Doncaster where he had to carry a 5lb penalty in the Lincoln. It wasn't the cleverest thing I ever did,” admits his trainer wryly.

Although he never quite managed to capture a Group race, Quito, who was rarely ridden at home, and was trained largely on the lunge-rein, ran some of his best races in defeat in top company, not least when finishing a neck second to Reverence in last year's Group 1 Betfred Sprint Cup at Haydock, and when runner-up to Steenberg, beaten half a length, in the Group 2 Duke of York Stakes.

“Tony Culhane got on better with him than anybody else, and got to know him so well,” said Chapman, of the jockey who rode him to no fewer than 14 wins.

“My grand-daughter Ruth (Clarke) did a wonderful job on him at home and at the races – she got on with him better than I did. He was a horse with a lot of natural ability, a great engine.”

Come the end of this month, Quito, whose only remaining testicle is buried deep in his body, will be temporarily transferred to Twemlows Hall at Whitchurch in Shropshire where his fertility will be tested.

“We're not holding out much hope as we've already been told that there's only a very remote chance that he could produce fertile sperm.

“His good ball is long gone and the one he's got is only about the size of an acorn. But we feel it's worth testing him as he's a beautifully-bred horse, whose mother (Qirmazi) was a European champion.”

If Quito does not have any future as a stallion, he will return to Chapman's Mowbray House stables near Easingwold to spend a well-earned retirement.

Unsurprisingly, Chapman produces a predictable response when asked whether he has ever spent 3,500gns more wisely than the day he bought Quito. “Never,” he smiles.